April 28th is Biological Clock Day

Tick tock. Tick tock. Can you hear your biological clock ticking away?  I am pretty sure that I can.

I am certainly not looking at having anymore children! In fact, two is all that I ever wanted and it turns out, that was a good decision, as I don’t think that I could handle raising any more than that.

Our biological clock does so much more than tell us the perfect time to get pregnant. In fact, both men and women and the young and old are subject to the influence of the biological clocks that we all have.

For example, have you ever stayed awake for an all-nighter and felt off for many days afterwards or flown from one time zone to another and felt the affects of jet lag? The impact is due to a disruption to our internal clock.

All living organisms have an internal biological clock, called the Circadian Rhythm, which helps their bodies adapt to the daily cycle of day and night as the Earth rotates.

Circadian rhythms are controlled by “clock genes” that carry the genetic instructions to produce proteins. These instructions control everything from when we sleep and rest, body temperature, heart activity, hormone secretion, blood pressure, oxygen consumption, and metabolism. They may even influence our mood, particularly in the form of wintertime depression known as seasonal effective disorder.

Our biological clock has three parts: a way to receive light, temperature or other input from the environment to set the clock, the clock itself, and genes that help the clock control the activity of other genes.

The human Circadian Rhythm is actually 10 to 20 minutes longer than 24 hours. The biological clock keeps working even when the we are removed from natural light. Without daylight, the biological clock will eventually start running on its own natural cycle. But as soon as morning light hits our eyes, our clock will reset to match the earth’s 24-hour day.

Sleep is essential to our mental and physical health.  Clock genes normally keep us awake during the day and asleep at night.  But when a clock gene mutates, it can disrupt the normal sleep cycle. Sunlight, air travel and even the seasons can disrupt our Circadian Rhythms and the quality and quantity of sleep that we get.